propositions, protests and pedestrians

We finally got here! after a three hour flight into Sydney, and a 9 hour flight into Bangkok, we finally got to the hotel at around 1am. We took a quick tiki tour around Khao San Road and then tried to crash out for the night. A lady-boy tried to pick up Stacy, and I think he's scarred for life. I think I slept about 2 hours max. We got up super early and made our way to Chinatown and quickly realised we stepped out of the tourist track and were the only whiteys around. People kept talking to me in Thai and replied to Stacy through me... and I dont even look Thai!! We walked around pretty much all day, and Stacy got scammed. Scammed hard! This crazy looking woman ran up to him and started pouring corn kernels into his hands, three bags full! And then demanded 150baht off him (around NZ$7.50), he ended up giving her 20baht to make her go away, LOL. I think I caught the exact moment he realised what was going on...



We went to Wat Pho and saw the Reclining Buddha, dropped some coins for good luck (how did I end up with half a pot left??), posed with some statues which look a lot like Davey Jones (pirates of the caribbean) meets Jackie Chan, and saw the most Buddha statues I have ever seen in my life. These guys dont just like Buddha, they LOVE Buddha! The place is just amazing, there's this great glazed colourful tilework everywhere.


(sorry if this is sideways)







We had a bit of a wander around Bangkok on foot, and came across the flower market, and the Amulet market (can I just say thank god drinks are cheap here! Its so hot and humid we have to stop and duck into a 7-11 for drinks every half an hour). The amulet market is a bit bizzare - it all looks like cheap trashy Buddha statues and pictures of some old guy (sorry whoever you are), but the Thai's all whip out these little jeweller's monocles and study them minutely for ages... and it's not just one random guys - there's heaps of em! There have been a couple of surprises already: This little old lady was sitting there peddling her wares, and I noticed a beautiful gold bottle, and I asked her about it. She whipped off the lid and snorted out of it and then tried to shove it under my nose!

There's currently a protest going on - not sure what about, but there are hordes of police all over the area near Wat Pho. Some guys in red shirts causing trouble or something. The cops are'nt really doing too much though, just sitting around eating mostly.



Anyway, after all that walking around we jumped ina tuk-tuk, pee'd our pants as he weaved through traffic, and went to a day spa. A fish day spa. These little sucker fish eat the SKIN off your FEET! It tickled like crazy, but after a while felt kind of nice. It was a little weird because our spa room was in a big open windowed room, facing the busy street, and we had people trying to speak to us through the window and taking pictures of our feet. (We asked a lady to take this one - maybe a little too much glare? LOL)



Alright! Now don't go expecting this much from the blog on a usual day - we just have a bit of time to kill before we meet our tour buddies. Next stop - Southern Thailand!!

xx Laura